PW_4_2018

Culture Corner

‘All aboard the Skylark’ Denis Hunt , South Wales Branch

10 am on Monday, 3rd September was a beautiful sunny time of day for members of the South Wales and Dyfed Powys Branch to launch a raid across the Channel (Bristol Channel that is) on the good ship ‘Waverley’, led by our ‘dastardly Captain’ Ken Davies. T he mighty vessel ‘Waverley’ is the last remaining operational passenger paddle steamer in the world and was built in

were all somewhat chilled from the fresh belting wind bearing down upon us from the mouth of the River Severn. In fact we were all so glad to eventually get on board and down into the café area for warming coffee that any thoughts of moaning to the crew went out of the portholes.

regarding various steam locomotives and equipment that we passed along the route. However, it was a glorious one and a half hours of the clickety-clack of the train running along the rail track, clouds of lovely smelly steam working its way into our carriages and the constant sound of the train whistle. Ah, the memories of lost youth from years gone by. So arriving at Bishops Lydeard we then boarded buses for a final journey up into Clevedon where, in theory, we would have a relatively short journey back across to Penarth. Another slug of grog in the nearby pub seemed an ideal way to pass the time until 8.15pm when our lovely lady of the seas would be waiting at the end of the pier. 8.15pm arrived and strangely there was no lovely lady of the sea in sight. In fact, typical of a lady, she kept us waiting until she sailed out of darkness and into harbour at around 9pm as if nothing was wrong. By this time we

1946 to replace her predecessor that was sunk at Dunkirk whilst attempting to evacuate troops. Our destination this morning was initially to be the coastal town of Minehead. As we sailed out of the small town of Penarth near Cardiff, the sun gave its best, but the further we got to the English coastline the bleaker, windier and damper it became. The rain kept hitting us intermittently over the next few hours, when finally we all gathered at the small railway station and boarded the West Somerset Steam Train for a superb rattle along the tracks down to the end of the line at Bishop Lydeard. There is nothing more entertaining than being on a steam train, surrounded by passengers who seemed constantly content to bore their female partners with information

Have you seen my Classic Car ? Denis Hunt , Secretary - South Wales Branch

South-Wales member Howard Yeoman recently put forward a suggestion for a Classic Car Section in this area. Emails and Facebook entries were circulated throughout the Region and also Section UK, with feedback from an initial six or more members. T aking advantage of the Branch monthly coffee morning meeting in Cardiff, Howard invited members to bring their vehicles and use the opportunity to talk much intelligent talk about spark plugs, tappets, distributors, oil pressures and many other such enthralling subjects

that only people who own these wonderful machines would ever talk about. And so, the inaugural meeting of the South Wales Branch Classic car section was born. Any new members and machines would be more than welcome to join with us. Then, cups of coffee in the garden centre to round off the morning, with one member even slightly agreeing to put together a Branch Treasure hunt for a future social event. All said and done, a very enjoyable morning.

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POLICE WORLD Vol 63 No. 4, 2018